Smoky Quartz with a distinct internal phantom (ex Paul Zerfass Collection)

Item Description

A lovely, stout, very sharp, rather lustrous, rich smoky colored Quartz crystal from Brazil that features a distinct and eye-catching internal phantom that can clearly be seen when the piece is backlit. The piece is crystallized all the way around, and despite a saw mak on the base, the only real damage is a contact on the back lower corner. The piece is in great shape overall, and I don't see any real damage. A few of the pyramidal faces on the termination are so smooth and lustrous that I thought they COULD be polished, but I looked at them with a loupe and they have tiny imperfections and growth lines, so I'm fairly confident that they are unaltered. The piece weighs a whopping 702 grams, and has some real heft to it! From the collection of the long time, beloved, well-known French field collector, Paul Zerfass (Collection #342). Zerfass built this worldwide collection over nearly 50 years, many of which were personally collected. A biography featuring specimens from his collection (along with his face on the cover) is in the May - June 2017 issue of French mineral magazine, Le Regne Mineral. We have a .pdf copy of the article for anybody interested in reading it (though it's mostly in French). Just drop us a line and know that you'd like to have a copy.